All-Knowing Series

Imagine that you and the President of the United States are close friends. Better than that … he or she is your twin brother or sister. Now … I don’t want you to get lost here. I’m not talking about a particular person or president. I just want you to imagine “the” President … you can imagine them being whomever your want.

My point is this … imagine that your twin sister or twin brother is the most powerful person on the face of the earth. You’re tight. You’re family. They call you first thing every morning … go over your day with you to see what you need and how they can help. At night, they position guards around your house or apartment and have a surveillance satellite positioned right over your bed while you sleep. Any problem you have, they can handle it. They have the resources of the entire United States government at their beck and call. The FBI … the CIA … the most powerful, well-trained, well-equipped army in the world. Would you fee safe? Protected?

Well … as powerful as the President of the United States may be, he or she is but a mere flea on the surface of Jupiter … a mere molecule of water compared to the ocean … compared to the power of God. Jesus told His Disciples: “I tell you, my friends … do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after than can do no more” (Luke 12:4). The President’s power is limited to this world … the physical world. “But I will show you whom you should fear,” Jesus explains. “Fear the One” – capital O – who, after you have been killed, has power to throw you in to hell” (Luke 12:5).

Jesus is, of course, speaking about His Father, whose power extends far beyond the limits of our intellect or imagination. He is omnipotent … He has power over all the universe. He is omnipresent … He is present throughout the universe. And He is omniscient … He has knowledge of the entire universe. Or, as Pastor Tony Evans puts it: “God knows what needs to be done – that’s omniscience. God has the power to do what needs to be done – that’s omnipotence. And God is always wherever He needs to be to do whatever needs to be done – that’s omnipresence.”

Omniscient … All-Knowing …

He knows all things … past, present, future … real or potential. He knows them all at the same time. He not only knows what was and what is, He knows what will be. He not only knows what will be but everything that could be but is not.

O-M-N-I .. “Omni” … means “all.” If you take the prefix off of “omniscience,” guess what word you have? “Science.” “Science” is an old medieval term that means “what is known.” “Omni” … “science” … “all that is known.” Our God is omniscient … all-knowing. He possesses total, boundless, absolute, universal, unlimited, comprehensive knowledge.

Every bit of God’s knowledge is always fully present in His mind. It never grows dim … like it does for me ... nor does it fade into the subconscious. It is always equally present in His conscious mind. God knows instantly every possible item of knowledge concerning everything that exists … or that could exist … anywhere in the universe … at any time in the past … or that may ever exist anytime in the ages to come. The omniscience of God means that He not only knows everything that is actual, He knows everything that is possible. There are no hypothetical questions for Him. He knows how every contingency will resolve itself were it implemented.

Author and pastor Robert J. Morgan put it this way: “God knows the temperature of every star … the composition of every planet … the size of every galaxy … and the course of every comet. He knows the shape of every snowflake … and the design of every shell. He understands the mysteries of the depths below and the heights above. He knows what lies beyond the galaxies and beyond the grave. His wisdom is as high as the heavens … as deep as the oceans … as broad as the cosmos … and as long as eternity.”

No one … not your mother, not your father, not your brother or sister, not your husband or wife, not ever your twin, if you have one, know you better, more thoroughly, more intimately than the omniscient God of the universe. And no one has expressed that truth more beautifully and poetically than David, the man who sought out the very heart of God.

“O Lord, You have searched me and you know me,” writes David. The Hebrew word that David uses for “search” literally means “to examine carefully or explore.” It describes the action that a bugler takes when they search someone’s house for valuable possessions. The image is that of a bugler taking his time, meticulously going through everything in your house … turning everything over … going through every drawer or closet … scouring every corner … leaving no stone unturned as we would say today. And if you think that a greedy thief is pretty thorough, as we shall see in verses 2 through 5, it can’t compare to the depth and thoroughness of God’s searching.